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Michel de La Roche

Huguenot author in England

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 7, 2026
Entity authorityQ6836624 ↗
Source-derived summary

Michel de La Roche (also Michael) (fl. 1710–1742) was a French Huguenot refugee and author in England, where he was known as an editor of early literary periodicals, monthly or quarterly.

Life

While young in France he experienced religious persecution for his Protestant religion. He left for England, where he became almost immediately an Anglican. He became a friend of Samuel Clarke, Benjamin Hoadly and William Whiston.

De La Roche settled in London and obtained employment from booksellers, mainly devoting himself to literary criticism. Imitating some similar ventures that had been made in Holland, he began in 1710 to issue a periodical, Memoirs of Literature. It was brought to an end in September 1714; there were other issues in 1717. De La Roche, on his own account, was a friend of Pierre Bayle. Early in 1717 he arranged to edit a new periodical, Bibliothèque Angloise, ou Histoire littéraire de la Grande Bretagne, in French and published at Amsterdam; he was still living for the most part in London.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Michel de La Roche” as huguenot author in England. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1710, 1742, 1714, 1717—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1710. The account is most persuasive where Michel, Roche and Huguenot can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as huguenot author in England. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6836624. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1710, 1742, 1714 and 1717.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Michel de La Roche”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Michel de La Roche primary sources, Michel de La Roche archive and Michel research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Michel de La Roche”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Michel de La Roche” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.